Despite big advancements in sensor technology in recent years, clouds can still block a warplane crew’s view — and make it impossible to support troops on the grounds. Synthetic aperture radars can peer through weather, but these sensors generally are too big and unwieldy to help in a fast-evolving... Read more

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — DARPA, the Pentagon’s fringe-science organization — has begun work on a small drone that extend the range of an AIM-120 air-to-air missile. The “Flying Missile Rail” could help U.S. Air Force and Navy fighters match and even exceed the ever-increasing range of... Read more

In early March, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced it was awarding a contract to Virginia-based Aurora Flight Sciences to develop a small robotic demonstrator aircraft as part of phase two of DARPA’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing X-Plane initiative. “For decades, aircraft designers seeking to improve vertical... Read more